Clive Owen close to retirement

Sir Ranulph Fiennes' controversial novel "The Feather Men" is adapted to the big screen in this 2011 action thriller. When his mentor (Robert De Niro) is taken captive, a retired member of Britain's Elite Special Air Service (Jason Statham) is forced into action. His mission: kill three assassins dispatched by their cunning leader (Clive Owen). Also starring Dominic Purcell and Yvonne Strahovski.

Clive Owen considered retiring after getting "tired" of making movies.

The 'Killer Elite' actor admits he was trying to tackle too many projects one after the other, and so he considered stepping away from acting completely.

He said: "I'd be a liar if I said I'd never thought about giving it up. I'd done too many films back to back and got tired, for the first time really.

"I've always been passionate about acting, it's the only thing I've wanted to do - but there was a time a number of years back where I started to realise that the rhythm of constantly making films wasn't great for me."

Instead of retiring, Clive decided to scale back his working commitments and only take on roles in movies that really caught his interest, including his latest film 'Killer Elite'.

Explaining why he agreed to the project, he said: "I was intrigued and fascinated about what happens to these highly-trained guys in the elite forces - who go through this rigorous training and find themselves in the most intense situations - when they have to retire and live a normal life."